Der Langrisser (SFC JP) Playthrough --- Stage 11 (Imperial Route + the Masayan Sword)

This time we have to nab 'Langrisser' on the Imperial Side before the Army of Light does, and while Leon no longer handicaps himself by waiting 5 turns to show up, unfortunately he is no longer cavalry, and the water does sort of get in his way. Oh well, at least he can wear Speedboots, and as with the Light Stage equivalent, we have the alternate option of wiping out everyone instead to win the stage, which includes Jessica (and does not include Cherie if she hasn't appeared yet). Jessica or Cherie can grab Langrisser on the Light side while Elwin or Leon can grab it on the Imperial side. Again the Army of Light frontloads their troops towards you with two Dragoon squads, a Grenadier squad, and a trio of Mages with Ballistas and Elves. The problem I ended up having was needing to experiment with Hein and Imelda casting their spells so as not to kill the commanders too early, and even so I had to kill that Swordsmen with Grenadiers before I can entirely wipe his squad. Keith also runs interference with a bunch of fliers but unlike in the Light Route, he and his Angels are the only viable threat of the bunch. The Hawklords carry Fairies. Cherie appears on the enemy turn of Turn 8 (and does not do so if you wiped everyone beforehand, so be patient and camp if you want Exp for killing her). Remember that she has an innate +2 MV bonus so she can move VERY quickly if you don't stop her near the starting area somehow, and she comes with a full squad of Angels of her own. The only good thing about it is that Cherie's DF is rather low, as are her Angels since she doesn't have Keith's Defence Bonus to his troops, and if you can actually catch up to her should be able to wipe her pretty quickly. Vargas also appears and this time permanently joins you, giving him another quick level boost (in theory if I hadn't already maxed him out earlier, that is!). And this time he lives to see Eliza give birth to Emilia. Told you we'd make it up to him... provided we don't go onto another route that would result in us killing him again later, at least. Sadly I already grabbed the Secret Tile on the Light Route version of this stage so no another +3 AT bonus for Elwin. This stage is in fact the divergence point between the Imperial Route and the Chaos/Independent Route, and is only available if either Elwin is the one who grabbed Langrisser or you won by killing every enemy on the map; If Leon grabs Langrisser you're locked into the Imperial Route. In fact, answering 'B' ("to seek great power") when Leon asks you why you're seeking Langrisser in Stage 8 and/or (not sure if both answers needs to be triggered for this) answering anything but 'B' ("that's not what I'm after") on Aaron's question in Stage 10 will default Elwin to betray the Raygard Empire and lock you onto the Chaos/Independent Route, you Lu Bu-esque Thrice Bastard. If you do get a choice though, select 'Yes' to stay onto the Imperial Route and take Langrisser to the capital, which is what I'm going to be doing here first. And speaking of Langrisser... since I already have it in my inventory from the Light Route, I get the Masayan Sword instead (and in fact you'll get a copy of this every single time you clear this stage while you still have Langrisser in your inventory, or just buy it off of the Super Secret Shop), which gives a MASSIVE debuff (which I'll show later) but doubles all Exp gain for the person equipping it. Great for levelling on these alternate routes where Army of Light units give minimal Exp, really. Especially when paired with the Crown we just got on Stage 10 to mitigate the penalties to Command Auras. Imelda is getting very close to levelling to Wizard at least...